Friday, June 27, 2003 11:09 a.m. Headline of the Day From The Register RIAA Plays Wack-a-Mole.
Friday, June 27, 2003 09:24 a.m.
Strom and Sodomy
Strom Thurmond and sodomy... my! I overheard a very gay hill staffer tell some friends about his experience working for Thurmond. He took him asside one day and asked "When you have a man and anoth-ah man ... togeth-ah, how does the man on the bottom experience pleasu-ah?" No idea if this is true, of course. Still kinda funny.
Update: Zoe emails: "asside...damn, that's great..." OK, I'm keeping it
Thursday, June 26, 2003 04:55 p.m.
To Whom the Bell Tolls These days, The Bell Jar is regarded as something of a joke around literary circles and that's a shame; it really is a good book. NYT rounds up Sylvia Plath's old Mlle-mates for a 50th anniversary of their summer as girl-fridays at the fashion magazine. Perhaps it was premonitions of the monotoneous lives the alumnae went on to lead that can explain the oven incident. What a legend. And she did it all before thirty
Thursday, June 26, 2003 01:26 p.m.
Microsoft Tells US Army, "Buy Our Products Twice!"
Starting now I'm going to keep a tally for articles that make me either pro-Open Source Government software or por-"Free Market." Here's a Slashdot discussion for the former
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 04:19 p.m.
The Lady is a Techie
Ellen Ullman's The Bug is THE novel of the year, even if you aren't a techie or a wannabe. NYT calls it "thrilling and intellectually fearless." And listen to Amazon describe its author: "If there is such a thing as a typical computer programmer, Ellen Ullman is not it. She's female, a former communist, bisexual, old enough to be a twentysomething's mom, and not a nerd. She runs her own computer-consulting business in San Francisco and in Close to the Machine explores a world in which 'the real world and its uses no longer matter.'" Take a look at her web presence even before the book was published
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 02:13 p.m.
P2P 2 B Forgotten
WSJ reports the RIAA is expected to file "at least several hundred lawsuits" within eight to 10 weeks and will continue to file lawsuits afterward on a regular basis.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 11:44 a.m.
I-Black Market
I badly want to read Tech Review's new article, "The End of End-to-End." If anyone happens to have a password, I'll trade you for the keys to the Wall Street Journal or Economist.
If Democrats are going down in flames anyway, the base figures that they might as well do so behind someone who speaks to their soul, rather than some pale imitation.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 09:41 a.m.
Why Economists Are Total Dorks Politech noted on Monday that EverQuest's female avatars are worth less than male avatars according to economist Edward Castronova. He wrote a 45-page report detailing gender discrepancies
The average avatar price is 333 dollar; the price discount for females is 40 to 55 dollar, depending on methods. The discount may stem from a number of causes, including discrimination in Earth society, the maleness of the EverQuest player base, or differences in well-being related to male and female courtship roles. We do know, however, that these differences cannot be caused by sex-based differences in the abilities of the body, since in the fantasy world of Norrath, there are none.
Now, the report is headline news on the BBC. I refer you now to Robert Shapiro's Slate piece, "Why Economists Are Obsessed with EverQuest"
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 09:20 a.m.
Beggars Can't Be Choosers
The recent appeals court ruling over whether email correspondence can be libelous, is hailed as a "free speech victory." That's depressing (albeit, not as depressing as it would be if they had lost the case.)
Tuesday, June 24, 2003 04:47 p.m.
Today's Findings
Julian's steller piece for Reason on SCOTUS's quota ruling. I'm not going to link to Front Page Magazine about it, except to say they win hyperbole of the millenium for calling yesterday "The Worst Day in Civil Rights History" and Dahlia Litwick singles out "Sandra Day Prufrock."
George Orwell had rare birds for muses: items one and two
Former GMU University Scholar, Joe Rospars has a blog, and it's magnificent: Not Geniuses
The Unkindest Cuts
So Heritage inevitably cut my Jacob Sullum review to size. But you can still read my piece for Doublethink! By the way, I would never write "in light of the RIAA's legal might..."
Monday, June 23, 2003 02:48 p.m.
Troops Tripped
For today's Cato Daily Dispatch, Ted Galen Carpenter predicts preemptive attacks on North Korea. Trrops were recently "repositioned" after standing as tripwire near the DMZ for years. He says "South Koreans, who know how horribly their country would suffer if the United States launched preemptive strikes on the North, now have reason to be very, very nervous."
Monday, June 23, 2003 11:45 a.m.
Indymedia Gone Wild
With a URL like Indymedia Gone Wild you'd expect to see, at the very least, a bare chest or two -- really, not a scarce commodity at any given protest. But all they have as of yet are bowling videos. Hmmm. (via John Pondering)
Monday, June 23, 2003 11:24 a.m.
Cogito Ergo Blog Human Nature has a lot of hot links up today like this. Take a look.
Monday, June 23, 2003 11:11 a.m.
Golodnitsky. Heinrich Golodnitsky.
Here's a fascinating article on a "nebbish cum Soviet spy." Enjoy.
Monday, June 23, 2003 09:38 a.m.
Social Sciences Get Dissed Again
Oh snap! Via Political Theory, I see the Business Standard just compared economics to sociology. To add insult to injury, the writer says there are just too damn many of us
there are at least 200,000 people worldwide who can call themselves economists. About a tenth of this or 20,000 are in the research business, one way or another.This is roughly the same number in all the sciences taken together.
Since I'm lazy and recycling old material anyway, to this I say: when have you ever heard of an economics course called "Wealth, Gender Politics, and Socio-Economic Stratification" or "Forms and Functions of The Family Institution?"
Public Edjumacation DC Schools produce the worst readers according to the Washington Times. In some grades we're only slightly better than non-English-speaking children in the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Shizzatt!
Friday, June 20, 2003 10:43 a.m.
Vindicated BBC says we're naturally morning or evening people, and New Scientist says shyness is genetic
Thursday, June 19, 2003 04:09 p.m.
Amazing If I had permalinks, I direct you on my post comparing sociopaths and stockbrokers. Here's a living example:
A FLOOR broker at the New York Stock Exchange, Arthur Gross, was fined $1,000 yesterday after he sneaked comedian Gallagher onto the trading floor. Gallagher proceeded to pull a large chunk of watermelon from his pocket and then smash it over the head of another trader, Peter Tuchman, an unsuspecting victim in the prank, an insider said. Video surveillance cameras on the floor of the Big Board captured the action and Gross was promptly disciplined. Sources say he could face a hearing and further prosecution, including suspension. A spokesman for the exchange had no comment.
Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?
No female intellectual abstains from a Virgina Woolf phase at one point in her life. Mine was in Cambridge (UK) summer of 1999 on my first trip abroad. I took a Virgina Woolf class and it was all girls. A quarter of them were total lesbians and the rest were close enough. I read The Well of Loneliness, wore sari skirts, kept a juicy diary, and wallowed about this vegan place called the Rainbow Cafe. Claire Miccio for The Morning News goes to a Virgina Woolf conference and tells all.
Update: No need for segue. Smith College has opened its doors to cross-dressers, hermaphrodites, and transsexuals
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 04:13 p.m.
Spam of The Day Ok, Ok ... my yahoo account is spamless, but my Mason account gets flooded. Some are kinda funny including one pitch from the Army National Guard with the subject "Freedom Isn't Free"
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 04:07 p.m.
Knoxville Chapter of the George Michael Fan Club Rejoices Tennesse chooses "Choose Life" licence plates. Nevermind that it was found unconstitutional in another state
Or Could Be a Three-Legged Dog The Register, a site you all should be reading more often, has something on E-911. This is the "three-legged stool" to get the wireless industry, the 911 agencies (fire, police, ambulance) and the local phone companies in coordination
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 01:30 p.m.
Insomnia, Internet Addiction Related -- No Wait, This is News
My mother was right. She always warned me that late night websurfing was why I couldn't sleep. The moniter's bright light disturbs one's melatonin secretion making it more difficult to fall into a sleep pattern. Science Daily has the details.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 01:22 p.m.
Where Have All the English Majors Gone?
Best line in Ted Leo's The Ballad of a Sin Eater: "Oh, the French Foreign Legion/ You know they did their best/ /But I never believed in T.E. Lawrence/ So how the hell could I believe in Beau Gest, Huh?"
